A man at Seoul Station watches a TV news program showing footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Wednesday, after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile into the East Sea ahead of the first summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping this week. The text reads, "North Korea fired a ballistic missile." / AP-Yonhap

By Jun Ji-hye

North Korea launched a KN-15 medium-range ballistic missile into the East Sea, Wednesday, a day before the United States and China will hold a summit to discuss how to handle the recalcitrant regime.

Military officials and experts here assessed that the latest provocation reflected North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's determination to go head-to-head with U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping who are expected to discuss strengthening sanctions and pressure on the North during their summit.

"The missile was fired from a site in the vicinity of Sinpo, South Hamgyong Province, at 6:42 a.m.," the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. "The flight distance was 60 kilometers, and the maximum altitude was 189 kilometers."

The JCS said initial assessments by the militaries of South Korea and the United States indicated the missile was a KN-15 believed to have a range of 1,200 to 2,000 kilometers. The KN-15, a name given by the Pentagon, is called the Pukguksong-2 in North Korea.

This is the second time for the North to launch such a missile. The first one fired Feb. 12 flew about 500 kilometers.

Calling it a "North Korean style new type strategic weapon system," the North's state media claimed that Pyongyang developed the missile — propelled by solid-fuel — on the basis of a successful submarine-launched ballistic missile underwater test-firing last August.

Experts said the North was probably trying to raise the accuracy and reliability of the new missile through the second test.

The JCS said Seoul and Washington are still working to analyze whether the latest launch was successful, considering it only flew 60 kilometers.

The U.S. Pacific Command also confirmed the missile launch, saying, "The launch of a single ballistic missile occurred at a land-based facility near Sinpo." It added the missile flew for about nine minutes.

In response, Cheong Wa Dae convened an emergency National Security Council (NSC) meeting presided over by Kim Kwan-jin, the national security adviser to Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn. The government strongly denounced the repressive state, saying such a provocation was a blatant challenge to U.N. resolutions against Pyongyang.

Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University, said, "The latest launch was an attempt by the North to send a warning message to the U.S. and China."

Chang added the North might have been attempting to show off its ability to attack U.S. units that would be dispatched to the Korean Peninsula in the case of a war.

Some experts speculated that the missile was not a KN-15 but a new type of missile that is an intermediary stage in the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of hitting targets on the U.S. mainland.

"It could have been the first-ever test in the process of developing an ICBM propelled by a solid-fuel engine," said Kim Dong-yup, a researcher at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies, adding that the North has been indicating an imminent ICBM launch since its leader said the regime had entered the final stages of preparation for one during his New Year address.

On March 22, the reclusive state attempted to launch what was presumed to be a Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile from Wonsan, but it appeared to have exploded in mid-air shortly after liftoff, according to officials.

The North also fired four missiles presumed to be Scud-ERs from the Dongchang-ri long-range missile site, March 6. At the time, all flew an average of 1,000 kilometers.